He said the Centre would function as a storehouse of information for trends and designs and disseminate the latest designs to the industry, particularly those seeking designs for the global market. It would also offer a unique service to all designers to take up membership of the website.

Rana hoped that the headstart taken by the sector would mean better business in terms of larger orders and consequently more work for the handloom weavers across the country.The domestic market for the handloom sector being limited, the focus would have to be on exports, which touched Rs 2,000 crore in 1988-99, but could have been more considering its vast untapped potential, Rana noted.

"With the dismantling of trade barriers and with multi-fibre agreements coming to a close, we may have even more serious competition than what we have at present. The industry needs to prepare itself and should have a vision which will take it to the year 2004 and beyond", he said. Ginghee Ramachandran, minister of state for textiles, also complimented the office of the development commissioner for handlooms and the National Institute of Fashion Technology for this effort. Textiles secretary, Shyamal Ghosh, said the Centre would be connected to all the 24 weavers'service centres around the country and to the exporters and other buyers and sellers through the handloom export promotion council.